I own nothing, Young Justice is the property of DC and CN.
War Wounds
She was staring in slight bewilderment at the strange people, appearing out of nowhere.
Who are you? reverberated the redheaded dimwit's irritating tone in the blonde girl's ears.
I was hoping it'd be you, said the woman wearing a cat mask - her flesh and blood.
I've always wanted a sister, declared the green skinned girl, who has been very kind to her since the very first moment, yet she thought there was something really strange about her.
„Hey, Artemis!"
Artemis… How stupid…like some whore's or adult movie star's nickname. The person with such a name must be very unlucky…
„Wake up, Sleeping Spooky!"
Being compelled to awake against her will made her aggressive and insolent as a wolfpack. She roused with a start, reached out reflexively, and squeezed the hand shaking her shoulder gently, then rotated the ambusher's wrist clockwise (definitely a male, judging from his voice), to force him down to the bed.
The girl's movements were automatic as she obtained a hammerlock, and placed her free arm across the front of his neck, ready to, releasing her well-developed murderous instinct, strangle the guy in cold blood. Blurred memories of field trips in post-colonial countries came to her, where she had learnt how fragile a human body can be.
The appalling reek of his musky aftershave hit her all of a sudden, and she had the odd feeling of knowing the young fellow, now struggling for breath in her chokehold. Recognition made her loosen the cruel grip, and she finally took a better look at the ambusher. She saw a disheveled mop of red hair, and felt a slender body, still determined to break free, no matter the life-threatening danger was over. Sudden confusion hit her as the practiced, involuntary movements were overtaken by conscious thinking. She released him immediately, and moved to the far side of the bed until her shoulder hit the wall, where she squatted on her heels, and covered herself protectively with the bed sheet.
„Damn you, why did you sneak up on me? I nearly killed you! Who are you? Who...where am I?"
Newborn pain struck her through the temples, so she shut her eyes tightly, only to open them up again. Seeing the boy's fresh corpse, arms and legs outstretched, behind her closed lids made her break out in cold sweat.
„What the hell, Artie! There's no love lost between us, I know, but is that really enough reason to choke me?" asked the redheaded guy, now standing on his feet with his back bent, and he checked, whether his throat was still in place or not, with a painful grimace.
The young girl's gaze pierced through the air of the small room, which resembled the interiors of some sort of home. Light-arrows of the morning sun drilled into simple pieces of wooden furniture, and walls covered with plywood.
„I'm…I'm sorry. Why are you calling me Artie? Please, answer! I can't...recollect anything about myself," she told, still too puzzled and frightened to argue, though she did think the boy sought trouble for himself with waking her.
„You…you mean, you don't have any memories?" the boy asked with surprise, and the girl would've sworn she saw the shadow of a smirk on his lips. „You can't even remember your name?"
The girl only nodded, and watched with unease as the guy sat on the bed right next to her.
„You don't have to worry about anything, beautiful! You're safe with me! I'm Kid Flash, you know, the superhero…"
„A superhero," the girl interrupted, frowning sceptically. „Right. So this is why you wear this ridiculous costume? First I thought you've ran away from a fancy dress party in a mental asylum."
„It's more of a hazmat suit, babe: helps to survive the hotness you radiate! Speaking of heat: you look dehydrated. Do you want some water?"
„Er…," the girl did feel thirsty, and also guilty, because this guy was so nice to her, yet she still tried to make fun of him for no apparent reason. She wondered if this was her usual way of dealing with people. „Yes, please! If you don't…."
Kid Flash rose to his feet, and in the blink of an eye, he left the room, gathered a glass of water, and returned.
„…mind," the girl finished the sentence, gaping at the guy with her mouth open. „How did you…?"
„Told you: I'm a superhero. And you are also…let's say you have a bit talent in archery. Your name is Artemis… Well, you introduced yourself as such, though I don't know if it's your real name…"
„I hope it's not," mumbled the girl, and tried to hide her cheeks, which were reddening, probably as a result of hearing the embarrassing name again.
„So, Artie," said Kid Flash, and settled himself on the bed again, this time even closer to her, seizing the opportunity that Artemis was lost in thought enough to forget to back away, "how 'bout you kiss the Wall-Man in exchange for this little gesture? After all, we're a couple, or what…"
„You're kidding, right?" asked Artemis, and she tried to prevent Kid Flash from touching her. "You just said that we…don't really like each other."
And I'm pretty sure we don't. She realized now, why has she instinctively shown her nastier side: she knew exactly this type of individual, no matter she hasn't remembered knowing. Kid Flash was the kind of guy who thought the world was nothing more than a bunch of silly jokes, orbiting around him personally.
Unfortunately, pushing away Kid Flash's hand meant that she had to let go of the blanket hiding her chest, only to realize that skillful hands put a bandage on her shoulder, probably because of some sort of injury (she had already discovered gauze covering her skull), and that same hands, in order to achieve this goal, removed her upper garments.
It wasn't essential for the rest of the Team, seated in the living room of the Logan household, to have the enhanced hearing of Superboy to understand the angry words Artemis uttered:
„Out! Now!"
„Relax, I didn't see anything! Not as if there's too much to see, anyway." All of a sudden, Wally appeared beside the others, who were busy devouring their poor breakfast: generous donation from Marie Logan.
„Uhm, I think she's awake, Rob."
„Hey, KF, why don't you try a good can of…whatever this is? Just make sure you'll be cannier with it than with our little archeress." Wally, for not the first time, wished that he hadn't heard the sarcastic overtone the Boy Wonder used.
„I think I've had enough of this stuff for the rest of my life," sighed Wally, and he waved aside Robin's efforts to hand him a can of mystery meat, but catching sight of Miss Martian's worried posture made him change his mind. „Then again, who could say 'no' to something fetched us by our Megalicious?"
"Well, actually, I didn't…."
„Do you have any idea how gross you are, when you talk like that?" said the blonde markswoman, stumbling through the creaking wooden floor, now dressed in clothes, slightly oversized for her, which she found in an armchair next to her bed. She had to clench her teeth to repress pain, which was resurfacing as the rush of adrenalin slowly faded away, but her annoyance seemed to be stronger than the aching of her shoulder. She jabbed a finger in the middle of the lightning bolt on Kid Flash's torso, involuntarily turning his costume to stealthy black. „Tell me something, Kid Perv: why did you, of all people, come to wake me? Why not the green girl? Uhm, hi, by the way. Maybe I should know you, but…."
„She has lost her memories," informed Kid Flash. „I wish she has lost her ability of speech instead. Maybe another blow in the head would do the trick…"
„Wally! How can you say such thing?" said Miss Martian, and she put her palms immediately to both sides of the girl's head. „Let's see if I can give them back…"
„Well, she may not be beyond reparable. At least she seems to remember how much she despises KF," said Robin, and he watched Wally collapsing in the armchair next to the Boy Wonder. The speedster finally gave in to his hunger; after one spoonful of minced meat, however, he dropped the can back to the coffee table.
„I think I… might have tried to do something stupid…"
„Kid Brat!" thundered Artemis. „You tried to fool me to...kiss you? Are you that bored of your life?"
The girl remembered now, she remembered every detail: Wally being joyful because of the mouth-to-mouth M'gann gave him, after he had nearly drowned; lying to the same Martian girl about his nonexistent affection to the mystic arts. Wally happened to be even worse than she first thought: not only self-centered and careless, but also completely untrustworthy; a real natural disaster.
"You know what, Robin? I'm fed up with his little games! I can't be part of this team with him around!"
„Please, Artemis, spare us the big performance! I've known Wally for years, and I'm aware he's a pain in the ass," said Robin, and he stood up, ignoring the loud 'dude' let out by Kid Flash. „But you know as well as I do that he didn't have any bad intentions."
Yeah, no bad intentions at all…. If he was a normal teenage guy, I'd say you're right. But in this business the lack of responsibility can be lethal, alone, without any hint of bad faith…it will be, eventually, Artemis thought.
"You're right, Robin, I'm sorry. But I still want him to apologize," said the girl, glaring at the redhead, just as all other eyes in the room did, but, as Artemis predicted, Wally merely turned his head away.
„See? He's hopeless… selfish and shallow, just like…," Artemis said, surprisingly on the verge of crying, but she corrected herself when she met the narrowing gaze of Robin's domino mask: „I think you are on the wrong side, Kid Flash. Our villains are the ones with such traits".
With that, she went off towards the exit, only to find Conner blocking her way.
„Artemis, wait!" said Conner, who was standing by the wall all along, completely indifferently on the face of it.
„Oh, don't you start! Beside the brat, it is you in this team, who never said a nice word to me! You think I buy that you care about me? You're just a big pile of ignorant Kryptonian muscle, nothing more!" she yelled, smashing her fist into the S-symbol, only to be able to add her hand to the 'body parts which hurt' list, before slipping through Conner's fingers, and storming outside.
„I-I do care about you," whispered Conner, when the door slammed behind Artemis. „You saved M'gann back at the cave...I can never repay you for that."
I've had enough of psychos and egoistic monsters in my previous family, thank you very much! Artemis wanted to hide behind the stables, to be alone with her tears, but she had to realize there were no stables left to hide behind. She had foggy memories of the Bialyan air force blowing it to debris. She did not know when it occurred, but she was running to save Gar, when the gasoline tanks next to the building exploded.
So she chose the large acacia in front of the bungalow. Moving to the far side of the tree, she leaned against the trunk, and tried to swallow the salty stream burning her throat.
„He does care about you, you know." So suddenly the words of the thirteen-year-old came, it made her gasp. Robin was furtive even to her standards.
„Stop right there! I don't want to hear about the non-existing qualities of Wally," replied Artemis, still not turning to face the Boy Wonder. „Tell me… is Gar alright? You didn't seem distressed back in there, so…."
„Yeah, your guess is right: he'll be okay," assured Robin, but he didn't let the conversation steer away from the topic: "How come you think I was talking about Wally? You were yelling at Superboy…."
Artemis slowly turned around with an angry-but-admiring expression on her face, and her dark eyes told: you got me there, lil' son of a Bat.
"Please. You're Quick-E-Mart's best pal! It's kinda obvious you want to support him."
"If you say so," smirked the guy, hardly older than a child, yet already smarter than Captain Marvel with the entire 'Wisdom of Solomon' thing. „He was sitting by your bed all night long. I can't remember him being this upset since quite a long time."
"I don't think I want to watch the commercials right now."
„Look, I don't want to disturb you: I see you need some alone time. But I must make this point: Wally is mainly a jerk with you because…his idea about friendship is very idealistic. Maybe it's just some twisted Midwestern thinking, but he puts honesty above everything else; believe me, I've learnt that the hard way. He won't act as your friend until you're hiding things from him; no matter he's feeling guilty, because he knows you saved him from being fried alive by Amazo. I think, sooner or later, you'll have to tell him who you are. Who you really are".
Suddenly, they heard high-pitched screeching, and a furious roar, as Superboy kicked the door off its hinges, and lumbered after a tiny monkey, which was running with a can of meat in its hands. The weird group was closely followed by a kid who looked vivid, despite of his several bruises, and finally Marie Logan appeared in the doorframe as well, screaming furiously at her son:
„Garfield! Get back here! You're not well yet!"
„He seems very healthy to me," said Artemis, looking at the suspiciously fast and agile eight-year-old.
„Yeah, Superboy's untachment to monkeys, on the other hand, shouldn't be healthy."
At least I don't wear a cast. Wally just wouldn't stop making smart remarks on how bone fracture didn't repress his abilities..., thought Artemis, as pain once more entered to her shoulder, and she reluctantly let Robin drag her away from the tree, which Superboy started to shake like crazy to get the small primate down.
To Artemis' ears, the monkey's shrieks seemed more and more like mocking laughter with every passing second.
Thanks for reading! Please, leave a review if you think I deserve it :)
2012. 03. 30
Hango